More Than Just Acting
by Barefeetinsummer
Summary: Kyoko is faced with a completely new challenge, she ahs to direct a movie, as the young genius Andrea Shultz. Who will her leading actor be, Kuu? or someone else? There will be romance, T for chapters to come.
1. Chapter 1

Hello everyone. This is my first attempt at writing fanfiction, so I apologize in advance for any out of character instances. Please enjoy.

Disclaimer: I don't own Skip Beat!

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Kyoko looked at the assignment Sawara-san had handed her and Moko, apparently the President was getting creative.

"In order to be a good actor you have to appreciate the work put in by the other members of the crew, your job is to be a director. Here are your scripts" He gave Kanae a booklet titled _All the Years I Waited_ and Kyoko a sheaf of papers with a coverpage declaring _To Kill an Enemy_.

"Excuse me Sawarada-san, but how…" Kyoko asked.

"The cast has already been established, you have a week to look over the script and prepare for your assignment. Each cast has been told that you are the genius director Andrea Shultz from the states."

"Who's Andrea Shultz?" Kanae asked, "And does she know we're doing this?"

At this time the President made his grand entrance from the ceiling, like a spy from an old movie. "You are Andrea Shultz." He announced grandly, unattatching the rapell cable from his waist. "She is a young and amazing director. Think of it as another acting job. Your task is to create the persona of Andrea Shultz and achieve an understanding of the roles in your scripts to play them correctly. The actors you will be working with will be people you have heard of but never worked with before, with a few exceptions. The exceptions will be briefed on your experiment as it is a test of their ability as actors. Top notch actors rarely have to act under the direction of novice directors, this will be a good experience for them"

Kyoko wondered what he meant. Maybe she would be working with Kuu again! And then she became nervous, if she was working with Kuu and failed. Father would be disappointed in her. Color drained from Kyoko's face, she looked down at the script in her hands, the letters, in bold print across the front. She would do this for Kuu, she would not let him down.

"Kyoko, Kyoko?" Sawara asked her, "Can you do this assignment?" He had seen her face go pale and worried for the young actor, he knew she had a tendency to push herself past the limit of normal human breaking point and then collapse. It reminded him of another dedicated actor, Ren Tsuruga would even forget to eat.

"H-hai! I will do this assignment well President thank you!" She said with a dertermined grin while bowing formally.

"You have two days off all of your work to prepare for the shooting. The locations have already been selected, good luck", He nodded to the two girls and rappelled back up through the ceiling. Moko looked doubiously at the script in her hands. It was going to be a lot of work. Not only does she have to come up with an idea for who the other characters are, but she has to create her own character. She saw Kyoko next to her, undoubtably plotting her character already, even though she hasn't read the script or met the actors. Mokko narrowed her eyes, she would have to change her own character based on the group of actors that she worked with, damn, this was a hard assignment. She grabbed her best friend's arm.

"Come on Kyoko, let's go." Her friend looked up at her questionably. "To the park to read our scripts" Kanae clarified. Kyoko's face lit up.

"Alright Moko-chan, let's go!" _I'll definitely make Father proud._ On her way to the park Kyoko thought about her character, a young genius director. That would take some work. If you were a genius would you flaunt it, or be modest? Who would you be friends with, how would you speak to the actors. Kanae was thinking some of the same thing, but her focus was on the script. While in Sawadara's office she had refrained from opening her script. Now she had her nose buried between its pages, memorizing the script and taking mental notes. Her character Yumi was a young mother during the second world war. She should be strong and independent, but yet weak emotionally…why else would she wait for her husband for all those years. Unless she was emotionally dead those years. Or maybe…maybe…no, no, waiting for someone like that wasn't emotional strength. Kyoko was devoted and look what that got her. But the husband wasn't a scum bag like that egotistical yodeler. Kanae narrowed her eyes, she'd figure out Yuumi later…Now Genbo, he's a…

Kanae's thoughts were interrupted by a gaggle of little laughing children, when swerving to avoid them, she ran into a garbage can. Seeing she was at the park, Kanae found a seat, Kyoko however had other ideas. A head emerged from the bushes adjacent to the bench Kanae occupied. Her best friend's grinning face interrupted her work.

"What?" She scowled at Kyoko, already prepared to give some non-committal grunt answer.

Kyoko's eyes became sparkly with rainbow delight. Kanae tensed, faeries….

"I found a fairy glen and the queen tree!" Kyoko excitedly informed her best friend. Kanae rolled her eyes. Grabbing hold of Kanae's wrist Kyoko pulled her through the bushes, miraculously free of brambles. They emerged in a clearing. A stream ran through it, clean clear water, with multi-colored pebbles at the bottom. A great old sakura tree stood on one side of the clearing, but it's branches encompassed most of the little glen's sky. It was indeed a queen tree, it's petals raining down like blessings.

Kanae grumbled, but settled herself under the tree while Kyoko continued to stare dreamily into the distance, occasionally muttering to herself. If anyone else had come by this scene they would have contacted an ambulence immediately, but for those who knew her, such behavior was entirely normal. Kanae resumed glaring at the script leaving her friend to the great cherry tree.

Though Kyoko appeared to be doin nothing, she was actually madly thinking. Just who was Andrea Shultz? She was young, not Japanese, which would be a challenge for Kyoko's traditional background. What air would Andrea have about her? She had grown up in America…Kyoko realized that Andrea could be whoever she wanted to be, she could be Natsu, Mio, Bo, anyone. Kyoko's forehead frowned. Natsu, would not be the best director. Natsu had evil donw to an art, but she wouldn't direct an amazing movie and Kyoko wanted this film to be famous; she would make Kuu proud and Sho shrivel and Tsuruga...she didn't know what she wanted to make Tsuruga feel. The idea of doing something completely foreign to her gave Kyoko the shivers. There was no room for failure, the ultimate test of how well she knew how to act, by making other people respond to her acting. Kyoko smiled, deciding on how to approach Andrea's character.

Kyoko reached up for a petal falling from the sky, smiling at the soft pink flesh between her fingers and became Andrea Shultz.

Turning and smiling at Moko, who until seconds ago had been her best friend, Kyoko/Andrea beamed.

"How are you doing there? I'm Andrea Shultz, recently from America, do you mind if I sit here?" She asked, her face open and friendly, but slightly neverous, using extremely formal Japanese.

Kanae, lifted her eyes to Kyoko's face and then looked back down at her script. "I don't mind." Andrea beamed again and settled herself under the tree tilting her head back to gaze at the petals. At the same time, the young woman dug in her bright pink pocket and produced a pencil. She studiously attacked the script, scribbling in the margins. Then turning to Kanae she asked, "Do you happen to have an extra sheet of paper?"

Kanae, decided she'd play along with her friend's act. Kanae slipped into her character as Andrea. Her demeanor changed, no longer did she glare at the script but she instead appeared curious. Flipping to the front pages of her script she showed them to her friend.

"I prefer to write in the margins and on any place I can find in the script. Sorry."

"That's alright," Kyoko's forehead wrinkled. "I think I can squeeze it in the margins, too, but there's just so much to write." She nibbled on the end of her pencil, thinking then scribbled, tilting the paper sideways for more writing space.

They sat a few moments in silence, and then Kyoko/Andrea turned to Kanae/Andrea.

"If you were Hope what would you look like?" She asked her friend.

Kanae/Andrea pondered for a moment and then pointed to the tree. "Hope, is like that tree, beautiful and everstrong." Internally Kanae practically shivered inside for saying something so corny, but she knew it was something Andrea might say. After all Andrea was a genius. She believed in success through hard work and therefore hope. Though she's never really had to hope since she's a genius…..Kanae slipped into the deeper ponderings of her own character while Kyoko stared up at the sky.

"So beautiful" Kyoko murmurs quietly to herself in a completely un-Kyoko fashion. Andrea, stands up and brushes the grass from her legs, leaving Kanae behind in the clearing, absorbed in her work. "I think it's time to meet Hope" she says, heading for LME.

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So, how did you like it? A good idea huh? I apologize for any grammatical errors, punctuation is not my strong suit. Second chapter to follow soon I hope.

Love you all for reading

Barefeetinsummer


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The hallway was silent, the adjoining rooms empty. These rehearsal rooms were almost never used, most actors preferred the newer wings added on by the President. In his grand style, Lory Takarada had made these old practice rooms like ballrooms, which they were sometimes used as, especially if a large number of poelple were involved, but now they sat empty. Single actors felt like there was too much space, they couldn't narrow in and focus, so obligingly, the President had made smaller cubicle-like practice spaces.

Ren opened the door to the first room. The clop of his shoes echoed throughout the entire room, making him feel small. An ornamental chair sat to the side of the room, cushioned elegantly, obviously not for sitting. It screeched in protest as he dragged it towards the center of the room. Once that was settled, he pulled a script from his back pocket and began flipping through it. He had been offered a new drama, one that would be a challenge for him. A challenge that with the President's pestering he had been unable to refuse. The movie combined both the role of a merciless killer and a man in love.

He read his first set of lines to himself in his head. _Wealth won't protect you. Nothing can. _ Another life ago he had lived by those words, coming into this new world he mangaged to escape. Now he had to play a man living the same nightmare, hardened by it. Ren sighed, there was no way he was going to avoid playing in this movie. The president had made sure of that. The idea of being forced to eat Lory Takarada's home cooking made Ren shudder.

Takeshi. He scoffed, voice saturated in the arrogance of judgement. "Wealth can't protect you. Nothing can."

He slit the man's throat, and exited the blood covered room, stalking down the hallway. The mission was to kill all members of the household. His knife had sliced first the maids, then the family. There was one more door at the end of the hall.

Ren looked down at the script. The next lines belonged to the character called Hope, a wealthy young lady, dying, beautiful. Tsuruga tried to sketch her in his head. Her eyes were brown and sad, hair orange, sitting up in the bed with perfect posture, Kyoko would love to play this character he thought. Suddenly the President's demands that he take this movie made him suspicious. He was already playing BJ, so playing another cold hearted killer wasn't a problem. Yashiro had urged him to take this movie as well…

The door to the practice room squeaked open, interrupting Ren's thoughts. Kyoko/Andrea stuck her head into the room, scanning the contents, she spotted a rather startled Ren.

"Mogami-san, do you need help with developing a character?" Tsuruga-san asked politely.

"You must be Tsuruga Ren," Kyoko said extending her hand to the tall man. "I'm Andrea Shultz…Mogami-san….would this be the Mogami Kyoko who worked with you on Dark Moon? She played Mio right? Frightening....Anyways, sorry to bother you, but I was looking for a place to read my script…"

Ren just blinked at the young woman before him. Her ability to sink into her role was astounding, her character's name sounded vaguely familiar to him. Where had he heard it before. Setting his query aside to ask Yashiro later.

"Miss Shultz, you are free to use this room as well," Looking at the expansive room behind him Ren mothioned with a slight smile, "there is plenty of room."

"Oh I'd hate to disturb you…I tend to read my script aloud to myself several times to understand how I want the words to be said. I can hardly expect my actors to act to my image, if I haven't created it yet." Kyoko smiled up at Ren, completely at ease in the famous actor's presence. Ren had to hand it to her, the normal Kyoko, upon finding him practicing would apologize profusely, and then leave.

"You're directing?" Ren asked Kyoko, interested, this character sounded nothing like the previous roles she had been offered. Not even a whiff of evil come from Andrea.

"Yep, I'm from the United States, on Lory's insistance. " She bobbed her head. "I am really excited for this film. The script has such complex characters. I am sure the actors will live up to my dream though." Andrea closed her eyes, and visions of the script flashed through her head, Hope, Tadashi, the old woman….she needed to practice these characters. She needed to know these characters. "You want to help me?", her eyes placidly peering up at him. Ren shrugged nonchalantly, he was game for anything that would let him spend more time with Kyoko. "Great!" Kyoko dropped her script in his hands. "Now read the part of Tadashi".

For a millisecond Ren wondered at the chances that this character should have the same name as his newest job, discarding this thought he looked down at the script in his hands. It had been rumpled and torn, stained with who knows what, not to mention notes that sprawled across the margins pinched for space where the writer had run out of room. He turned the pages, noticing that all of thme were scribbled over and a large stain the result of what looked to be a large mud puddle.

"Now let's start from the third scene, the one where Hope first meets Tadashi. " Kyoko paced back and forth. Then, pulled up the chair. She placed her hands folded in her lap, her head bowed and shoulders sagging, the worn out posture of a person who as been on the verge of death for a long time. Her impersonation of the character Hope was devoid of any. Not even a lingering spark of potential existed.

"Please make it fast. " she stared blankly into the distance ignoring Ren's presence. She was speaking to someone who was not there. " I am tired of waiting to die." In the pause before his charcter addressed her Ren's mind made a flurrly of connections. This script was the same as the movie he had just accepted. Kyoko was not just an actress this time but a director as well. And she looked like a living corpse, without any change in make up or attire. The real actress for Hope was going to be given a run for her money.

" I do not care who sent you. Thank them for me." Kyoko lolled her head back, exposing elegantly the vulnerable arch of her throat. Remembering everything thing he had read about Tadashi, he advanced towards her, as if sliding out of shadows of an imaginary doorway. His features turned into a smirk, hard and arrogant, nearly lacking in humanity as much as her decaying form.

"Do you really want to die?" He taunted her, attempting to call her bluff. Slipping slowly into Tadeshi, feeling his humanity oozing out of his boots. Tadashi faces Hope directly, to examine the strange creature before him. She stares blankly, ignoring his comment as if he had never spoken. "Everyone wants to die. Even the vermin that run the streets beg for death." He paced closer to her, looming, a solid scythe of painful ending.

" Yes." She replied, voice unwavering. "Please." He closes his eyes, recalling memories of his past, his form rigid before her.

"You know nothing of death."

Kyoko shot her eyes open and bounded up from the chair. "Cut, cut, cut." Ren blinked himself back to normal, quickly composing his startlement from the abrupt dissipation of tension. "Tadashi is introspective, yes. He thinks of other people, yes. He feels, yes." Kyoko paced, turning around every yes. "However," her finger pierced the air, "he does not know this yet." She spun around to face Ren. He stood silent waiting for her to come to a revelation. Amazed at her quick understanding of Tadashi's character and slightly put out that she disliked his rendition. "Tadashi is bitter. He resents the upper class which he assumes she is one of. He would be baiting her, taunting her to prove him wrong. " Kyoko gazed up at Ren. "He is constantly searching for hope, but can not find her. And here with her right before him…"

Ren's eyes became steely and his voice cold. The voice of death's most haunted. "You know nothing of death." Kyoko, stopped her train of thought and returned his line with a dead look of her own.

" I know more of death than you have ever experienced in this lifetime."

Tadashi's aloof mask of lifelong killer twisted. His entire body contorted with anger that she would go against all his life has taught him. "You think you have experienced death?" He motioned to the heavily furnished room that they were both imagining to be there. "You would never know." He spat at her. " I will show you true death." Quick as the assassin he had become, Tadashi lifted the small woman over his shoulder and…

Ren took a large leaping step to simulate stepping out of a window, and held her there for a second. The grip of the scene unwound, surrounding the two of them in the ballroom like practice room they had originally started in.

Ren set her down in front of him, keeping his hands on her wist to steady her. Hou she return to Kyoko or Andrea. When the smiling face of Andrea looked up at him, Ren's heart sank. He was glad to see she was so into her role, however, it was Kyoko he wanted to smile up at him. Her happiness in experiencing the thrill of being another part of herself.

"Thank you very much for that. You played Tadashi perfectly." She patted his arm and picked up her script. "I hope the man who plays Tadashi will express him as well as you did." She turned to leave and moved the chair back to where he had original placed it. The script he had been studying lay on the tile face down beside it. "Well, I will leave you to your script. Good luck." She skipped out the door.

"See you tomorrow." He said when she had left, picked up his script and flipped to a random page of the script. "You must ride on hope's wings to get there."

He pocked the script and left the room without looking back at the chair. "You are my Hope." He whispered, closing the cdor shut behind him. This room, he would visit again.


End file.
